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Hey folks,

I want to have enough Lizardmen to field a decent 2000 pt army. After that, we'll see how it goes. So far this is what I've bought.

Lizardmen Battalion:
20 Saurus
12 Skink
8 Cold Ones
10 Temple Guard

1 Salamander

1 Terradon Rider

1 Slaan Priest

1 Stegadon

Here's what I've been thinking of doing:

2 Units of Sauruses (about 16 strong?)

1 Unit of Skinks (12?)

Slaan Priest

1 Unit of Temple Guard (10?)

1 Unit of Cold One Riders (12?)

3 Salamanders

Skink Priest w/ Stegadon Engine of the Gods


Is this a decent army or am I going the entirely wrong direction? Based on what I've listed out my next purchases should be a unit of Sauruses and a unit of Cold Ones, which almost makes me just want to buy another Battalion, and get 12 more Skinks and 10 Temple Guard while I'm at it. Then get 2 more Salamanders.

Good idea? Bad? What would you change? What should I purchase first?

Please keep in mind I'm really new to Warhammer Fantasy in general. I've played 2 games with my friend's Lizardmen at 1000 point levels.

Thanks!

Personally I would say 20 man units of Saurus.

And the slaan with the temple guard.

I agree with cowpow, bigger saurus blocks, like 24-30ish at 2k.
You're temple guard should also be sitting around 30ish for 2k. The slann is so many points, plus the extra VP's given up for loosing your BSB and General, that if you loose the TG w/slann, you're going to loose the game.
Forget cold one cav, they suck. Good WS for LM, but not even close to being worth the points.
Go with more temple guard for your slann, and more salamanders. It's hard to miss with the flame templete against all the units in horde formation.
For fast mobile suppourt, go with terradon riders and some chameleon skinks.
GS some big eyes onto normal skinks, and paint them neon colors, and poof; chams.

I like those suggestions too

I disagree with cricketofdeth on his advised unit sizes for a 2000 point game. With his suggested unit sizes of 24 (taking his lower limit) Saurus Warriors per unit and 30 Temple Guard you are already at ~1050 points. Add the Slann Mage Priest and you are at ~1500. Now add some support units (Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Skink Skirmishers usually) and all the points are used. With an army like that, what are you going to do against Monsters or heavily armoured troops? In my opinion, the Temple Guard unit (if you take this at all) should be a lot smaller than 30 (perhaps 20?). With the points saved you can add 2 Saurus Scar-Veterans with Great Weapon and Light Armour. These should help your blocks against heavily armoured opponents or Monsters.

To each thier own. But I think the TG/Saurus warriors crank out enough attack to bring down a monster or low AS unit any day. Give the TG the flamming banner, and they will fear no unit or monster.
Plus some skink skirmishers can easily strip a few wounds off most monsters.
20 TG will be chewed up by HE white lion/WOC chosen/templete weapons etc. you need the higher number to soak wounds, and at times, just to survive the magic phase. 20 TG vs. Pit of SHades/Pendelum/purple sun/crazy orc spell/skaven 13th? IR is not that hard to pull off when you really need it. Frying a small unit of TG so you punch the slann in the face, is one of those times.
The LM 3D6 LD tests along with the slann BSB means they will often fight to the last man(lizard), the bigger units take longer to chew through, and you keep steadfast longer; thus you win the war of attrtion.

I do like the scar-vet w/ gw idea though, and if you're taking the Lone Slann tactic then yeah, you don't need TG at all.

Hmm okay I'm hearing some differing advice. Thank you everyone for your help!

Is the consensus with Cold One Cavalry that they suck? That's too bad, I was planning on making them an integral part of my 1500 and 2000 pt army. I was planning on a unit of perhaps 12 of them, maybe 10 would have been enough.

I'm not hearing any arguments against the Ancient Stegadon Engine of the Gods, the Salamanders or the Slaan and Temple Guard.

So far it sounds like people are recommending I get more Sauruses and some more Temple Guard... just a little differing opinion of how MANY of each I need.

Any other ideas?

My approach to Lizardmen army building:

The Lizardmen have 2 units that can dominate a game (Slann Mage-Priest and Salamanders). With the Slann Mage-Priest, the question is: do you want to field him in a unit of Temple Guard or not? Personally, I really like the Ethereal Slann BSB with Crown of Command and Lore of Shadow. Cricketofdeth seems to be a fan of the eggs in one basket build with a lot of Temple Guard. I'm not saying that build doesn't work (it often does), but in my experience that build often results in either a boring game were your opponent will avoid your 'deathstar', or a game of 'can my deathstar beat your deathstar'.

Then there are the main combat infantry (Saurus Warriors) and harassment units (Chameleon Skinks or Terradon Riders). Unit size of Saurus Warriors depends on game size, spears or not and play style. I personally like multiple medium sized units without spears (18), but have heard about people having success with Saurus Warrior hordes (40). As for harassment units, most people tend to prefer the Chameleon Skinks over Terradon Riders.

So, these are the basics that most Lizardmen lists will include:
Slann Mage-Priest (Shadow, Life and Light are the most often used Lores, should be the BSB)
Saurus Warrior units (generally about 10-12 Saurus Warriors per 500 points)
Chameleon Skinks / Terradon Riders (generally 1 harassment unit per 1000 points, rounding up or down depending on personal opinion)
Salamanders (generally, maximum amount of duplicate Rare choices with unit size depending on game size, about 1 for every 1000 points).

Then, if you want the Slann in Temple Guard approach, you should add your Temple Guard (I'd advise about 1 Temple Guard per 100 points of game size).

Next, you should consider how you are going to deal with Monsters and heavily armoured units (the basic units don't do very well). Temple Guard, being S5, are slightly better at this than Saurus Warriors. If you really want high Strength attacks, the cheapest option is the Saurus Scar-Veteran with Great Weapon. Another option is (Ancient) Stegadons. However, most of their damage comes from Impact hits and Thunderstomp. Thunderstomp doesn't work against Monsters and heavy cavalry, so that leaves the Stegadons only useful on the charge (for these specific targets). For this reason, people tend to prefer Saurus Scar-Veterans.

With any left over points, you could take Skink Skirmishers (to protect your Salamanders), increase unit sizes, or add another harassment unit.

Okay - So it sounds like I shouldn't bother buying any additional Cold One Cavalry based on some of this advice.

Looks like my priorities are:

1) More Sauruses. Should 40 be sufficient for a 2000 pt game or would I need more?

2) Temple Guard sounds like I should get about 20 for a 2000 pt game.

3) I keep hearing Chameleon Skinks being mentioned. I think I'll probably proxy my Skinks as Chameleon Skinks and try them out in a game. I really hate the GW Chameleon Skink models.

4) In a 2000 pt game would you play with BOTH a Scar Veteran and an Ancient Stegadon, or should I pick one or the other?

Yep with LM, I am the Deathstar fan. That's why it's good to get advice from all sorts of players, with all sorts of play styles.
Cold one cav were never that good, and the steadfast rules, and step up made them a bit worse IMO. Most units can just put down too many attacks to make the unit worth the cost. Also striking at I makes LM cav cry.

I think you got your priorities right to me; can't go wrong with saruaus/TG.

I would suggest to get a Slaan priest, and some Saurus.

I would drop the TG to about 15 men. Have the Full Command on them. Give them a cheap banner as well. Since your Slaan will be in the unit (and has the ability to carry a magic standard/plaque), give him something like the war banner or banner of armor piercing. That should make your TG pack a punch. If you go with Lore of Life you'll be resurrecting your TG every time you buff the unit. The unit should also have 3 +Ranks since the Slaan counds as 4 models.

In my experience, I'd go for saurus with HW/S because that will serve you better than the extra 5 attacks (less any wounds you take from shooting). I haven't had too much experience with the Chameleon Skinks but I can tell you that the skirmishers are great and cheap. They have the ability to wound anything on the table (poison). At 2,000 points you're going to need one Steggadon (whether its a EotG, Ancient, or a Special Steg). You're going to need something to give you that extra push and high strength hits. Each one adds a different element (magic/anti horde/Bolt Thrower). You should be able to fit one in there.

As far as magic goes, I've used Metal, Shadow, and Life. I prefer life but Shadow and Metal both offer different play styles. Shadow - you probably want more skinks for the Razor spell. If you play against Ogres, Chaos, etc you'll find that they aren't expecting each skink to hit as hard as a Krox. Next Metal is a purely offensive spell list and works well against heavy armor. If you face a horde army its tougher. I've heard Lore of Light works well as well but I haven't tried it yet. I've seen others use fire but everyone in my area agrees that Lore of Life is a nasty combo (T6 Skinks/T8 Saurus/T9 Steg!) is just too nasty to resist. Its more of a buff lore but can be offensive if you play certain horde armies.

Airmaniac wrote:Then, if you want the Slann in Temple Guard approach, you should add your Temple Guard (I'd advise about 1 Temple Guard per 100 points of game size).

I believe you have to put them together (Bodyguard Rule) if they are in the same army list.

@ boyd
That's true, but you don't have to take Temple Guard if you take a Slann. You can also take the Slann and join him to another unit (if you have no Temple Guard).

If you go with Lore of Life you'll be resurrecting your TG every time you buff the unit.

This isn't true. You can't use the Lore Attribute to bring back dead models. In other words, the Lore Attribute can only be used on multi-wound models which have lost wounds but aren't dead yet.